Attorney General Greg Zoeller steps in on seized criminal assets

Lawsuit claims too little going to schools

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is stepping in on behalf of 78 county prosecutors named in a civil lawsuit challenging the way they handle assets seized from criminals.

State law allows prosecutors to keep some seized assets to cover "law enforcement costs," and beyond that, the money must be directed into the state's common school fund. But prosecutors also have a great deal of discretion to decide what constitutes law enforcement costs.

The lawsuit, filed by Indianapolis attorney Paul Ogden, alleges that the prosecutors who are named — including those in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Gibson and Posey counties — have taken as much as $17 million in dollars that should have gone into the school fund.

Ogden filed the lawsuit in August, and it was recently unsealed after a 120-day waiting period.

Zoeller, whose office often represents prosecutors, said the dispute over the assets prosecutors can seize from criminals is a matter that should be solved by lawmakers, not courts.

"Prosecutors who protect the public from dangerous predators by investigating crimes, filing charges and winning trials do not need to be distracted by civil litigation over public policy," Zoeller said in a statement.

"The proper place to argue that Indiana's civil forfeiture law is too lax or too vague is the Indiana General Assembly, which can introduce and pass a bill to change the law. I would support legislative efforts to clarify the civil forfeiture law to provide more transparency and certainty, but that debate ought to happen in the Legislature, not in civil court."

Zoeller said it isn't easy to define law enforcement costs.

For example, he said, many counties have task forces that investigate drug crimes, which often involve networks of suspects.

"Undercover investigations of drug rings are inherently dangerous and can require months or years to develop enough evidence before the prosecutor can file charges. Under current law, prosecutors have the discretion to apply assets recovered under civil forfeiture to overall law enforcement costs, rather than having police bill by the hour," Zoeller said.

Ogden, though, argues that prosecutors have paid less than $100,000 into the common school fund over the last 21/2 years — an indication that most assets that are being seized are also being kept by local law enforcement officials.

"While the method by which 'law enforcement costs' are calculated is open to debate, it is obvious that the General Assembly did not mean all law enforcement costs in the county have to be covered before a dime has to be paid to the Common School Fund," Ogden said in a statement.